If any of you ever feel like what you're doing for Palestine isn't helping anything, I'll tell you right now it's helping me. I know it is fortifying all of us who have been in this fight for years to see so many people willing to speak up. It has never been like this before.
The tide has already turned. The fact that #free palestine will have new posts everyday, that helps me. It helps my mental health knowing that Palestinians are less alone now than ever.
Yesterday I read some verses from the Quran talking about how "the blame" is not with those who wish to help but cannot, but with those who CAN help and do not.
Truly I do not care if all you do for Palestine is post in that #free palestine everyday, that is still more than many people with the means to do even more would do.
We see you. We see you standing in solidarity with us and with Palestinians. We love you. Thank you.
This is an incredibly sad thing to share but I feel like I have to. I’m not a defeatist but I don’t want to downplay the human toll, either.
I’d have to look up some words (it’s not in dialect) or have some help from someone better at this than me to do a better and more direct translation, but the gist of what Motaz is saying is that the pause has ended and it’s about survival now. He’s been transferred(? Moved around?) through all of it and he swears he’s done what he could in service of his country. He lives now in a new period of internal siege; there’s no escape from any direction. He is surrounded by Israeli tanks in central Gaza in a tragedy beyond imagination. He wants us to remember that Palestinians are not content to be consumed, they’re a people being murdered and a cause to protect from erasure…he ends with an expression of loneliness and abandonment and that’s why I can’t not share this. Those of us who are physically safe need to stay steadfast and keep pushing.
i know i have been quiet on here but i’ve been keeping myself informed about Palestine. it’s so hard to watch what’s happening bc as someone from the US, im not used to seeing this kind of violence.
it’s privilege to even say that bc Palestinians have been living through it for so, so long. long enough for it to escalate into a full blown genocide. and the fact that people and countries that have to resources to help are just watching and/or supporting israel is horrible and so upsetting.
i stand with Palestine and i will do what i can to support and i hope others will too.
we cry "the innocent women and children" to appeal to the masses, to try and force their sympathy, but the men and boys are innocent too.
I have seen sons crying out for their mothers, their fathers, their siblings. I have seen them break down at the loss of their families. I have seen them cling to their dead and grieve.
I have seen fathers cradle their dead children, seen them kiss their faces and hold their little hands. I have seen them faint with grief when asked to identify the dead. I have seen them carry their sons and daughters. I have seen them fasting to provide what little they can for their families.
I have seen men and boys digging through the rubble with just their bare hands, I have seen them comforting strangers, playing with children, rocking them, hushing them, even if the face of such imminent danger. I have seen them cry, seen them grieve, seen them break down into each other's arms, seen them be selfless, beyond selfless, becoming something I don't have a word for.
I have seen the men who are doctors refuse to leave their patients, even when they have no medicine or supplies to give them, even when they're threatened with bombings. I have seen fathers who have lost all their children pick orphans up into their arms and proclaim them their child so they are not alone. I have seen men and boys digging pets out of the rubble.
the men are innocent too. the men and boys are being hurt and killed too. the men and boys are grieving too. the men and boys are scared too. the men and boys are fighting to save their people too. the men and boys deserve to be fought for too.